The television set suddenly came to life. Hammer swung his pistol at the television but managed to not squeeze the trigger. The unmistakable music from some old WB cartoon was at full blast.

Van Dyson’s entertainment center had a collection of compact disks, with an emphasis on Russian composers – Mussorgsky and Stravinsky were particularly well represented. His DVD collection indicated a preference for film noir and included cinemaphile editions of classics in widescreen format.

Jim-Bean walked over to the television and shut it off. “Did you hear that?”

“Besides the television?” asked Hammer.

“Yeah,” said Jim-Bean. “From the bathroom.”

They turned to listen.

There was a faint at first sound at first, but it was growing louder…a hollow, wet sound, coming from the bathroom. [MORE]